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Game 101, Mets at Mariners

Taijuan Walker moves up to make this start after Erasmo Ramirez was rewarded for his sterling performance last night with a bus ticket back to Tacoma. It sounds crueler than it is, but here’s to Erasmo for stepping up when he (and the bullpen) needed him.

Bartolo Colon’s late-career, and really, it’s more like post-career, resurgence is still jaw-dropping to me. No longer the pudgy fireballer who won an undeserving Cy Young, he’s now a middle-of-the-rotation workhorse and, of course, the face that launched a thousand gifs. We’ve talked about it plenty here thanks to his time with the Oakland A’s, but the Bartolo Colon of this decade pounds the zone with fastballs. That’s almost all you need to know – he doesn’t establish the fastball, the fastball’s essentially all he has. Combining his 91-92mph four-seamer and 88-90mph sinker, he throws over 80% fastballs, the most in baseball. You’d think that as his velocity declines and the word gets out after several years of this that he’d suffer for it. And sure, his ERA is uglier now than it was when he pitched in Oakland. But Oakland’s the perfect stadium for a flyballer who challenges hitters, and he’s been unlucky thus far with the Mets. Sure, his HR/FB ratio’s crept up thanks to his new park (and not getting to visit Safeco so often), but his strand rate’s down dramatically, despite no real change to his BABIP. He’s posted FIPs in the 3’s each year since 2010, and that’s where he’s at in 2014.

Tai Walker returns from the minors as promised. The team sent him down not because of injury or ineffectiveness, but because they wanted him to continue to get some starts – something he may not have been able to do with the All-Star break breaking up the big league schedule. He’s been predictably wild in his two starts this year, walking five in his last start on July 6th. He was slightly better, but not great in his two starts in AAA after that, walking a combined four (with one HBP), and striking out just two in 10 innings pitched. Still, he’s on long rest and should be sharper today (knocks on wood).

James Paxton made a rehab start for Tacoma in last night’s DH against Las Vegas. He gave up three runs on two HRs in the first inning, but settled down after that, going 3IP yielding 3R on 3H (2HRs), walking 1 and K’ing 4. He was opposed by fellow injured-phenom Noah Syndergaard, who was brilliant, throwing 6 1/3 shutout against the Rainiers. The R’s won the second game, though, with a great pitching performance by one-time (and future?) prospect Forrest Snow, who’s been lights out in limited duty after his suspension. Andrew Carraway starts today for the Rainiers, and Stephen Landazuri takes the hill for AA Jackson.

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Comments

90 Responses to “Game 101, Mets at Mariners”

MrZDevotee on
July 23rd, 2014 3:38 pm

Say Hey Robbie…

HELP!

Westside guy on
July 23rd, 2014 3:42 pm

Good time for a dinger, Kyle.

MrZDevotee on
July 23rd, 2014 3:42 pm

Excuse me while I go double down on my heart meds…

MrZDevotee on
July 23rd, 2014 3:44 pm

Dammit.

Okay, Never Surrender! I have faith (an unsubstantiated belief if something evidence can’t support– ie, the idea Corey can win this for us!)…

Westside guy on
July 23rd, 2014 3:44 pm

Oh crap, it’s Corey Hart.

Westside guy on
July 23rd, 2014 3:44 pm

Thanks for showing us that lame swing twice, ROOT.

MrZDevotee on
July 23rd, 2014 3:45 pm

I have faith! Again… Really… I swear…

ivan on
July 23rd, 2014 3:45 pm

Haha.

Westside guy on
July 23rd, 2014 3:45 pm

Woo Hoo! It worked!

Okay…

Oh crap, it’s Logan Morrison.

MrZDevotee on
July 23rd, 2014 3:46 pm

SoDo LoMo!

Westside guy on
July 23rd, 2014 3:46 pm

That low pitch must be very deceptive because Hart swung at it and then LoMo almost swung at it.

That must be a pretty wicked pitch ’cause everybody swung over it… Including Jones when he struck out… Wicked spin on it…

Westside guy on
July 23rd, 2014 3:50 pm

*** GROAN ***

(that’s for pgreyy)

Dayve on
July 23rd, 2014 3:58 pm

Missing Cole Gillespie right now…

Woodcutta on
July 23rd, 2014 4:18 pm

I know football and baseball are very different in terms of how much one game means to the whole season but this series felt similar to when the Cowboys (yes, I’m a Cowboys fan) played the Lions last year. The Cowboys ended up missing the playoffs after losing to the Eagles in the last game of the season partly due to losing to the Lions when they were up 10 in the 4th and had not one but two chances to run out the clock with 3 minutes or less remaining in the game.

I just have this “gut” feeling that losing 2 of 3 to the Mets will be one of those series the M’s look back on with regret at the end of the season.

Will on
July 23rd, 2014 5:08 pm

Went to the game today. Was glad just to get a hit in the seventh inning but it was hard to focus on the game with the guy sitting three rows ahead of me smoking pot the whole game.

kaleyk on
July 23rd, 2014 5:30 pm

Great job by C. Hart today, by going 1 for 3 with a single, he moved our DH slugging % from .294 to .295, only 46 points behind the 13th place Royals and 274 points behind the 1st place Tigers. Yay.

islandan on
July 23rd, 2014 7:06 pm

There’s always AJ Pierzynski. Cheap, and still a better SLG at DH than the team rate.

The_Waco_Kid on
July 23rd, 2014 9:40 pm

After hours of negotiating with Jack Z and scouting our prospects, the Rays have decided the only thing we have that they want is our playoff spot.

MKT on
July 24th, 2014 10:16 am

Yeah, when Pierzynski was released a few weeks ago, presumably because his hitting was so bad, I couldn’t help but notice that his OPS was better than that of some of the Mariners’ “sluggers”. And he was a catcher, not a DH/1B/OF!

Which is not to say that he’s the guy that the Ms should go for. But a team should be able to find players who can provide non-negative WAR. Pierzynski-ish, or better.

Woodcutta on
July 24th, 2014 10:53 am

Pierzynski is a LH hitter though and we ALL know the M’s absolutely MUST sign a RH power hitter.

Grayfox3d on
July 24th, 2014 11:48 am

So, Kendrys Morales is a mariner again…. and there went Stephen Pryor.

californiamariner on
July 24th, 2014 11:58 am

I don’t think the Morales trade is going to lead to some offensive transformation but I can’t say I disagree with the move. I don’t think it’s a bad deal, Pryor didn’t have much value anyway. Hopefully Morales finds his groove and the team has a competent DH. I’m not going to expect that to happen, but I don’t think there’s a ton of risk here. We’ve all wanted to see Hart replaced.

californiamariner on
July 24th, 2014 11:59 am

The most interesting part of this might be Morales backtracking on his statements!

Grayfox3d on
July 24th, 2014 12:01 pm

Alright, so now we have 2 right handed DH’s, what happens next.

Woodcutta on
July 24th, 2014 12:36 pm

Morales is a switch hitter but if you are referring to hitting against lefties then yes the M’s now have two RH DH’s.

Grayfox3d on
July 24th, 2014 12:43 pm

I forgot he was a switch hitter, my mistake. But does anyone really feel like this is The Move, to push us into contention? While it’s a move that can pay off, I don’t think it’s going to do enough to keep our WC spot, if we haven’t lost it already.

stevemotivateir on
July 24th, 2014 12:57 pm

Alright, so now we have 2 right handed DH’s, what happens next.

Do you really have to ask?! Have you learned nothing here?!!

Jack will acquire another DH to play the outfield. All eyes should be on Morse.

Grayfox3d on
July 24th, 2014 1:09 pm

Might as well call Richie Sexton up and see if he can still swing a bat.

Woodcutta on
July 24th, 2014 1:18 pm

Where’s Segui? Cust?

JasonJ on
July 24th, 2014 1:41 pm

Sign one of Cust/Sexton/Segui/Willy Mo Pena. Call up Montero and Smoak. Send down Chavez, Ackley, and Romero. We’ll out-muscle the league.

msfanmike on
July 24th, 2014 2:07 pm

Close, Steve … well, kinda close.

Somewhat hot off the presses:

Bloomquist to IR and Jesus Montero to replace his spot on the 25 man roster

Chris Taylor to take “vacant” spot on the 25 man roster after Taijuan Walker was demoted yesterday.

When Morales gets here tomorrow there will have to be someone removed from the 25 man roster.

LongDistance on
July 24th, 2014 2:17 pm

Trader Jack. Who else can he dig up from the Ghosts of Mariners Past?

Of course… of course… this is just window dressing, for the bomb he’s going to drop in the next 5 days. Right?

Right?

I mean, we’ve all come to understand how he’s got all sorts of cards up his sleeves…

Right? ………..

Someone kill me now before I wake up August first with only the Lou Bobblehead Night to look forward to.

MrZDevotee on
July 24th, 2014 2:59 pm

I’m putting all my money on black…

Out of blue prediction:

Mariners send Dustin Ackley and James Paxton to Rays
Rays send Price to the Dodgers
Dodgers send Matt Kemp and some money to the Mariners